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Sonata in b-flat

Perhaps the most famous of Chopin’s piano sonatas is his second in b-flat minor. Most people, however, only know a bit of one of the movements of the work, and they may not even know the name of the composer!

The funeral march which forms the slow, third movement of the sonata has been used for state interments almost from the time it was written (it was played at Chopin’s own funeral in Père Lachaise). While the march is a fine and noble piece, this focus on a single movement of the sonata is more than a little unfair to a work which, as a whole, some consider to be ‘one of the greatest masterworks of the nineteenth century’. So here’s an opportunity to do it justice and listen to it in its entirety (it’s not overly long).